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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The day that I was waiting for has finally come. North Korea has finally designed the perfect set of jeans and is selling them-- unfortunately we can't get them in the United States. However, if you'd like, you can run over to Sweden and pick me up a pair.

"There is a political gap, there is a mental gap, and there is an economic gap," said Jacob Astrom, one of three Swedish advertising executives behind the project. "All contacts with the country are difficult and remain so to this day."

The idea for the project was born out of curiosity for North Korea, which has grown increasingly isolated in recent years under Western criticism of its human rights record and nuclear ambitions.

"The reason we did this was to come closer to a country that was very difficult to get into contact with," Astrom said.

North Korea, a country better known for its reclusive nature than fashionable clothes, rarely allows outsiders within its borders and has virtually no trade or diplomatic relations with most Western countries. Sweden, one of only seven countries to have an embassy in North Korea, is an exception.

But the process of agreeing a deal to produce just 1,100 pairs of jeans -- the first ever produced by the country, according to the founders -- often proved baffling. E-mails vanished into a void and communications were strained.

There's only 1,100! Man, we've got to buy them while they're out.

By the way, is it just me, or are the jeans likely made up of human/dog hair and the skin of political prisoners?